We are writing to you as organisations and individuals working on the right to information, i.e. the right to access information held by public bodies. This has been clearly recognised as a human right under international law, as well as in all three regional systems for human rights in Africa, the Americas and Europe.

We believe that, just as States need to adopt laws to give effect to this right, inter-governmental organisations (IGOs) also need to adopt right to information policies. This flows from the obligation of IGOs to respect human rights guarantees, as well as the benefits that flow from transparency, including building public trust, combating corruption and mismanagement, and fostering democratic engagement and accountability. We are, therefore, pleased to hear that UNESCO is currently developing an access to information policy. This follows developments at a number of other IGOs and is clearly better practice.

We would, at the same time, like to highlight the cardinal importance of engaging in genuine consultations with external stakeholders as part of the process of developing a policy in this area. Such consultations are important for a number of reasons, including to ensure that the final policy reflects the concerns of those for whose benefit it has been developed and to take advantage of the considerable expertise that exists globally on this issue. For such a consultation to be genuine, it must take place early enough in the policy development cycle for the comments received during the consultation to be reflected in the final policy.

We therefore urge UNESCO to release a draft version of its access to information policy as soon as possible rather than trying to reach consensus internally before releasing it, at which point the document would be unduly ‘fixed’ or final for the consultation to be genuine. We, in turn, commit to engaging fulsomely during the consultation process with a view to ensuring that the final policy is as robust as possible.